The minister of external affairs for India, S. Jaishankar, voiced confidence that the country’s relations with its neighbors, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, would remain “positive and constructive” and emphasized that India was not attempting to dominate every facet of their political lives.
“I implore you to avoid having a deterministic mindset. It’s not as if India aims to dictate every neighbor’s political action. It doesn’t operate that way. At an event called “India, Asia and the World,” organized by Asia Society and the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York yesterday (Tuesday), Jaishankar declared, “It doesn’t work, not just for us, it doesn’t work for anybody else.”
According to our New Delhi correspondent, the Indian foreign minister was responding to a statement that while India has provided Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with unrestricted aid, changes in their governments appear to have the potential to negatively impact India.
Every one of our neighbors will ultimately have unique dynamics. We don’t mean to imply that their dynamics have to follow the rules of what we think is healthier for us. This, in my opinion, is how things actually work. Everyone makes their own decisions, and then nations learn to live with one another and find solutions,” the minister said, as reported by PTI.
Jaishankar claimed that things were a little different in the case of Bangladesh. “During the past ten years, we have worked on a variety of projects that have benefited us both. Overall economic activity has increased, and the region’s logistics have become better.”
A day prior, on the fringes of the 79th UN General Assembly in New York, Jaishankar had his first meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain.
Each nation will have unique dynamics, according to Jaishankar. In foreign policy, one attempts to observe, predict, and subsequently react to it. In the end, I have every confidence that the realities of mutual benefit or interdependence in our neighborhood, along with our ability to get along, will serve our mutual interests. Those facts will come to pass. That has historically been the case, according to Jaishankar.
Every few years, he said, “Something happens in our region and people suggest that there is some kind of irretrievable situation out there.” The correctives then start to show themselves. I would therefore take it in that spirit and am quite certain that our relationship would remain constructive and positive in both of these scenarios,” he stated.
The comments from the Indian minister were made in view of Bangladesh’s and Sri Lanka’s recent political shifts.
In reference to Sri Lanka, Jaishankar stated that India intervened “very frankly, when nobody else came forward” and when Colombo was experiencing a severe economic crisis.
And I’m happy we took the chance. We completed it on schedule. On a large scale, that is. We successfully sent out USD 4.5 billion,” he remarked, claiming that the action had stabilized the Sri Lankan economy.
They were in charge of the remainder. We just did it at the time without any political conditions attached. We were acting in the role of a good neighbor, unwilling to have that kind of financial collapse occur right outside our door.”
“For their politics to work out” is how Jaishankar described the political process in Sri Lanka.
